Four main sections populate Fusion’s single-window interface: the Library (top left), the Playlist (top right), the Timeline (middle) and the Song Slicer/Effects Rack (bottom).

MixMeister Fusion is marketed as a live-performance and studio tool, but for DJs used to mixing with “two turntables and a microphone,” it feels most appropriate as the latter. A unique concept, Fusion incorporates many standard features from traditional DJ-booth-mimicking software, such as Native Instruments’ Traktor, into a timeline-based playback and editing environment similar to digital audio software, such as Apple GarageBand or Logic.

We could play a set live with Fusion, but the interface feels a bit clunky for spontaneous mixing compared to standard DJ rigs. The attraction to Fusion is that it records and saves all of your actions, including the movement of volume, EQ, and effects controls; looping maneuvers; and the placement of audio files within the mix—so you can go back and edit to perfection before burning your mix to a CD or exporting audio files. Fusion imports and exports AIFF, WAV, M4A, and MP3, and you can place markers to break up the tracks within the continuous mix.

When you drop songs from the Playlist to the Timeline, Fusion can automatically transition between them—either a simple crossfade or a Beatmix that uses tempo analysis to create synchronized transitions. Fusion’s tempo analysis worked with most straight-ahead dance, hip-hop, and pop songs, but it sometimes faltered on rhythmically complex songs. In those cases, the Song Slicer let us manually adjust the tempo grid to set the correct BPM and downbeat.

Fusion incorporates audio-editing controls that DJ software usually lacks, such as audio file cropping, deleting sections of a song, or adding silence and copy/paste for repeating segments of a track. All the changes you make are savable as Tweaks that you can reuse later, allowing personalized remixes of tracks to be called up with a few clicks. Fusion also analyzes every song you import and stores the tempo and key of each track—good news for the growing number of DJs catching on to the beauty of harmonic mixing.